1. Field
The following description relates to a method for manufacturing an automotive mirror.
2. Description of Related Art
Typically, the assembling of automotive mirrors, like side mirrors, is mostly done manually by human beings within a manufacturing unit. This leads to high costs and is time consuming. Therefore there is the need for providing automotive mirror parts suited for an automated robotic assembly line.
A gripping device for articles like motor vehicle headlights is known e.g. from DE 10 2005 062 706 A1. The known device has gripping units which exert gripping forces perpendicular to individual points of surfaces of such articles. Each gripping unit grips an article at one gripping point such that the article can be hold by the device. This allows for gripping of geometrically different articles of similar upper surface topology with the same device; but the gripping device is rather complicated and not suited for different surface topologies.
As mirror parts of an automotive side mirror like a housing part, a lighting module or a circuit board can have a large variety of geometries and/or topologies, even differing from model to model, presently most of the mirror parts are gripped in different manners with specific gripper designs. This requires time consuming and cost intensive gripper changes.
In order to provide a high degree of freedom, flexible circuit boards are used in automotive mirrors, see for example DE 10 2004 025 385. Such flexible circuit boards or wire harnesses provide terminals to be connected to different kinds of modules, like a blind spotter module, a ground light module and a turn signal module. The respective connection between the terminals and the modules and the subsequent attachment of the modules might even require assembling steps with gripper movements in different directions.
Molded Interconnect Devices (MID), which are plastic components containing electric printed circuit boards and functioning as 3 dimensional printed circuit boards, are in particular used in the automotive industry. Via Laser Direct Structuring (LDS) such electric printed circuit boards can for example be applied to plastic castings.